Archive for the ‘Candidate’ Category

As a search professional, I am surrounded by trust issues. Hiring executives find many recruiters’ modus operandi, let alone competence, to be suspect. Wary candidates, who have been steered in the wrong career direction by recruiters in the past and continue to be bombarded with inappropriate opportunities, are justified in thinking twice before engaging with a recruiter. On the flip side, I have to trust that hiring executives are presenting the company and position with full transparency. Similarly, I must ensure that candidates’ credentials and abilities are what they are purported to be.

In most all human interactions, trust is the cornerstone by which all relations are valued and business is decided on. As part of the human condition, it appears that depending on the circumstances, when people engage with someone new – whether it be a potential new client, service provider, or personal acquaintance, they enter the relationship on one of two sides of the trust issue.

One approach to trust starts people with a full bag of marbles. In other words, trust is assumed at the onset and can be either sustained or taken away, one marble at a time. The other side of trust starts people with no marbles in the bag. In this dynamic, people must earn trust, marble by marble. In conducting business, it’s of great help to understand which side of the trust equation both you and the people you engage with fall on.

As a search professional and former hiring executive, I’ve found myself trending towards the full bag of marbles mentality. As I scrutinize candidates, I take them and their collateral (i.e., LinkedIn profiles, resumes, and other supporting documents) at face value. I start with a clean trust slate and go into my interactions with a “trust but verify” mindset. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is for candidates to lose my trust and ultimately, empty their bag of marbles.

Let’s look at some of the criteria that can make or break trust between people:

* Consistency – Assessing how unwavering people are in their messaging, explanations, skill set, behavior, and actions. Here, I look closely for any conflicting data points that may threaten credibility. There are many examples around this point. It could be as simple as inconsistencies between their verbal description of their career path and their resume. Or, when interviewing senior sales executives who profess to be the walking embodiment of sales savvy and business acumen, I may ask them to walk me through a complex enterprise deal they managed. If they struggle to convey the client’s business objectives that they’re trying to address, the challenges of the situation, and their sales strategy and supporting tactics implemented, then clearly something is amiss.

* Clarity – Measuring how clear, detailed, and on point the messaging and explanations are. Any vagueness, omission of details, or dancing around the issue will surely challenge trust.

* Honesty and Humbleness – As a past mentor said many times, “The truth will set you free.” Providing honest glimpses into one’s intent and motivations can go a long way towards gaining trust. In a similar vein, any inkling of ulterior motives or hidden agendas suck marbles out of the bag faster than you can count.

In addition, as humans, we are imperfect, flawed beings. When people reveal their warts and pimples to me, whether it be an unfavorable situation, poor decision, or less than ideal character trait, I’m more apt to believe the other points they make. This doesn’t mean that as a candidate, you must summarily throw yourself under the bus during interviews. This has more to do with believability. The corollary to this is the higher and more polished the pedestal you put yourself on, the more suspect it becomes.

* Listening – The more attentive the listener, the greater the likelihood of engendering trust.

* Time – The willingness to invest the time needed to advance relations. This comes in the form of doing homework ahead of time (e.g., research, preparing discussion points and questions) as well as committing enough time to enable discussions to run their course.

Trust is not only a two-way street, but a dynamic, delicate, living organism that must be fed, cared for, and regularly assessed. Trust can disappear as fast as it emerged. We’ve all had experiences when we established trust with someone, only to have it vaporize with one unforeseen misstep. Trust is an imperfect science at best.

With this in mind, it’s easy to suggest that the best approach to trust is to start with an empty bag of marbles. Yet, the mere act of forcing someone to earn your trust over and over can in and of itself jeopardize trust. And sadly, starting with a full bag of marbles can expose vulnerabilities, such as letting your guard down when it comes to spotting deception.

This brings us back to “trust but verify,” an age-old axiom that has been used in many arenas, most notably foreign policy. Ultimately, trust must exist between both parties in order for it to do what it’s intended to do: further relations.

Action items:

When interfacing with people, especially for the first time, get a sense of their approach to trust. Are they a full bag of marbles person or do they have an empty bag approach?

Find out what’s most important to the people you’re trying to interact with. They may give you clues to the criteria they use to assess trust.

Ask people how they’ve experienced broken trust in the past. This is especially helpful in identifying trust-related hot buttons that deserve extra attention.

Today is my good friend and former colleague Steve’s birthday. Why is that noteworthy? Because in my mind, he epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit and mindset so many candidates, CEOs, sales leaders, VCs, and others aspire to or outright profess to embody. Yet, there’s something about Steve that truly stands apart. I’ve witnessed it time and time again.

Books and research papers have been written about the makings of an entrepreneur. And no doubt, there ought to be a book written about Steve. But to me, it’s not formulaic. It’s not akin to reading an instruction manual and then instantly transforming one’s mind into that of an entrepreneur. There are deep-rooted intangibles at play, perhaps a healthy mix of nurture and nature at work over the years.

Like me, Steve found himself rising in the ranks of an early-stage software company. About 15 years ago, we both enjoyed success building our teams and the markets they served. But one day, the CEO approached Steve with the bold, audacious plan of opening a Japan office and building a business there from scratch. Well, Steve knew next to nothing about Japan, its unique business culture, and the many challenges inherent in a foreigner setting up shop.

But risk tolerance was merely one attribute that drove Steve to take on this monumental endeavor. The more he researched the market, the culture, the potential resources he could tap into and leverage, the greater the opportunity he uncovered. Moreover, he envisioned the Promised Land and the many steps it would take to build and optimize a high performing Japan-based business. He had an insatiable thirst for studying the paths others took so that he could parlay that knowledge to help him carve out a new unique path.

Fast forward a number of years. Yes, Steve was highly successful in building the Japan practice for that software company. He learned so much along the way with this newfound expertise in doing business in Japan, ferreting out new connections and opportunities that transcended the bounds of that software company. Ultimately, he built from scratch what has become a highly successful firm that helps foreign companies do business in Japan. Steve has won numerous awards, met highly influential business and government dignitaries, and continues to this day to build upon his self-made success.

How did he do all this? Therein lies the makings for a best-selling business (and self-development) book. But for the sake of brevity, I can distill it down to a handful of notable traits that many claim to possess but few consistently employ. This is in no way a comprehensive treatise on the full anatomy and inner workings of an entrepreneur, but rather a quick glimpse into the “high and hard ones.”

As mentioned, Steve doesn’t have a risk averse bone in his body. That doesn’t mean he’ll jump off a skyscraper, but it does mean that he’ll consider any and all potential opportunities that may further his current or future agenda. But before he considers opportunities, he identifies and considers them from multiple angles. Steve has an uncanny, seemingly superhuman ability to see far beyond the horizon that most of us can’t see past. He spots multifaceted opportunities in things, situations, people, circumstances, changing market conditions, and events – that others don’t see at all, see but don’t make the relevance connection, or don’t perceive until much later. Spending time with Steve is like hanging out with Superman and witnessing his use of x-ray vision firsthand.

Once Steve detects opportunities, he doesn’t stop there. His brilliant, multi-threading mind connects dots to other tangential streams of opportunities, transforming one opportunity into many. Often times, I’ve seen Steve weave together business ideas that, no matter which direction business partners or clients take, he either makes money or finds creative ways to leverage their moves for incremental revenue down the road.

Enough about Steve. How does this pertain to the rest of us and what can we learn from entrepreneurs? I contend there are bits and pieces of entrepreneurial genius in everyone. Is it DNA or muscle memory? Perhaps a little of both. Whether you are a candidate, business leader, or in your first job out of college, take the time to identify and integrate into your approach the components found in some of the world’s most amazing entrepreneurs. And have some faith that as you become increasingly familiar with these traits, they will invariably open doors for you to add value to whatever you take on in life, both professionally and personally. They are bound to bolster your perception, intuition, confidence, proficiency, effectiveness, desire, passion, momentum, and gravitas.

Action items:

Everyone has at least some of the characteristics found in entrepreneurs. Find those in yourself and on a regular basis, seek out ways to integrate them into your approach.

Look back on your life – the bold decisions you’ve make and actions you took. What vision did you have prior to those watershed moments? What drove you forward? How did that vision come about and what gave you the confidence to be all in?

No. We’re not all Superman. But if we can at least witness superhuman entrepreneurial abilities in those around us, and perhaps learn both the significance of them and how they could apply to our own modus operandi, that’s a critical first step towards embracing an entrepreneurial mindset.

Even the most ideally suited candidates generate concerns on the part of the hiring team. I don’t care if the candidate is God’s gift to humanity, or in this case, the hiring world. Every candidate has a chink in their armor.

Well, of course there’s a hitch! The VP Sales’ boss, the SVP, likes the candidate, but is concerned about his coachability and ability to hit the ground running and ramp-up rapidly. Funny how so many hiring executives, usually quite senior themselves, routinely come up with this coachability question for senior level candidates. It’s as if age and experience equates to being set in your ways. Seems like a double-standard to me as I’ll bet that many of those same senior-level hiring executives would be challenged with the coachability concern as well.

In any case, nearly all finalist candidates will have a concern or two raised about them, often without their knowledge of it. This is where recruiters can come in handy as they can ferret out these concerns and then work in concert with the candidate to address them head-on.

Ultimately, this is where back-channel references provide immense value to the hiring process. In this age of connectedness, there stands a high likelihood that the hiring executives know someone who knows someone who can speak to the concerns they have regarding the candidate.

And then there are the formally submitted references. While some companies don’t put much emphasis into reference checks – amounting to not much more than the proverbial two-headed monster check, others take reference checks quite seriously. They’re a great opportunity to drill down into any and all remaining concerns about the candidate.

Of course, these formal references were handpicked by the candidate. So going into it, we know that they’re likely to bring noticeable biases in favor of the candidate. However, a business mentor of mine once said that a great reference is good and a good reference is poor. So yes, formal references should be taken with a grain of salt. Yet, that does not preclude the hiring team from really challenging the references, especially related to the outstanding concerns.

Beyond back-channel and formal references, hiring managers can also discuss directly with the candidate. Asking behavioral questions, such as “Give me a specific example from your recent past that demonstrates your thirst for coaching and self-development.” Or “Tell me about a time you started up in a new role. What did you do to facilitate a rapid ramp-up?” These questions should evoke answers that outline specific circumstances and actions taken as opposed to generalities (hypothetical “woulds” and “shoulds.”

If a candidate is privy to the concerns the hiring teams has, that candidate can provide additional targeted references who can address those concerns in no uncertain terms.

Concerns about finalist candidates will arise. The more effectively these concerns are addressed and sufficiently mitigated, the greater the likelihood that candidates will move on to the offer phase.

Action items:

1. Candidates: Even if the feedback is all positive, assume that there are concerns. Whether through a recruiter or direct with the hiring manager, take proactive measures to inquire about any concerns and then address them head-on. The last thing you need are lingering doubts or elephants in the room.

2. The higher the quality of references, the greater the chance that any outstanding concerns will be alleviated.

3. The bullseye is a myth. No candidates ever hit the center of the target.

Age discrimination is alive and well. There. I said it. Believe it or not, there is a law against this sort of practice. Yet, by and large, it goes undetected and unenforced. It reminds me of that FCC law that went into effect several years ago, prohibiting TV programs from broadcasting commercials at a louder volume than the program itself. A lot of good that did. I’m finding myself doing what my grandpa did when I was a kid – mute the commercials.

I wish I could mute the hiring executives who insist on hiring sales reps or marketing managers younger than 40. What’s the matter with prospective employees who are 40 or older? Is 40 when the warranty expires? Is it akin to pro football or baseball, in which many players over 30 are deemed high-risk damaged goods?

Let’s step back and look at some of the misguided reasons why hiring companies continue to engage in age discrimination.

Concerns over cultural fit — I was told that the average age at my software company client’s headquarters is 29. Well, of course, we all know that it’s impossible for a 48-year-old to fit in, thrive, and interact constructively amongst younger peers. Unbelievable! Every sales organization I’ve ever managed included a healthy mix of twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, forty-somethings, fifty-somethings, and some with sixty-somethings. Not only did they all manage to play nice in the sandbox together, but they all brought to the table a fresh blend of perspectives, insight and recommendations. And yes, they all performed equally well.

Concerns of being overqualified – Oh no, we don’t dare hire people with rich experience and wisdom! This concern is usually code for, “Your 50-year-old candidate may be highly qualified for the role, but he’s bound not to be coachable and will likely bring plenty of baggage, including all his nasty habits ingrained over the years.” It seems as though these hiring executives prefer a subservient, moldable ball of clay over a fine wine. The other reason for this concern stems from hiring executives’ belief that no one in their 40s or 50s would really want to pursue the position and stay in it. Funny thing, though – most 40- and 50-year-old candidates have demonstrated more longevity and loyalty in the roles they’ve taken than their millennial counterparts ever will.

Prefer a high-energy up-and-comer athlete over someone on the downslope of their career – Because as we all know, older professionals are devoid of energy, drive, enthusiasm, and the ability to perform. What are we talking about here…ED? Do we really need to invent Viagra for Salespeople? Well, guess what – the person on the “downslope of their career” has just as much to prove (and gain) as the proverbial up-and-comer.

Older candidates inherently have greater demands both inside (i.e., higher compensation) and outside of the workplace (e.g., caring for an elderly parent as well as kids). Well, actually, we all have demands that pull us in conflicting directions at any given time. That’s life. As for compensation, perhaps older candidates are at a different place in their life. Maybe their kids are done with college and the mortgage has since been paid off. That doesn’t preclude them from wanting to make as much money as possible, but it could mean that their priorities have shifted a bit — more interested in the role, company or industry instead of just focusing on the base and OTE. Last time I checked, this can be a good thing.

Older candidates don’t bring the same level of career focus – In other words, because professionals who have been around the block have ostensibly accumulated a greater breadth of roles or permutations of the role in question, they are deemed less desirable. Granted, some “seasoned” candidates bring this upon themselves by emphasizing how they’ve done this, that, and everything else…for over 20 years. They’re trying to be all things to all people. Yet, hiring managers are equally prone to dinging candidates for keeping to the same kind of role throughout their career. They would be viewed as complacent — not seeking advancement or developing themselves beyond their comfort zone.

The current demographic shift in the U.S. population is quite dramatic. As baby-boomers hit their 50s and 60s, there aren’t as many qualified candidates in the more recent generations to continue fueling the hiring and growth objectives that employers seek to attain. That’s not to say that there aren’t viable candidates in their 20s or 30s. Oh, they’re around, all right. But in this highly candidate-driven talent market, they’ve become a hyper prized and increasingly expensive commodity. They’re expensive in two ways. First, all this attention to younger candidates has driven up their comp levels, in some cases to egregious levels not commensurate with skills, experience, or performance track record. They’re also expensive because as hiring companies hold out for that perfect up-and-comer, there’s an opportunity cost for taking four months to fill the role instead of just one.

Companies whose aim is to build their organizations with younger, mirror-image people of the same ilk are bound to compromise the sustainability of their growth plans. Not only will it take longer achieve their goals, putting them behind on their hiring objectives, but they will end up with homogenous groups of people who could never learn as much from one another as they could from a more diverse grouping of experience and skill sets. Yes, age discrimination is alive and well. Yet, it is the very companies that continue to practice age discrimination that end up suffering as much, if not more than those they discriminate against.

Action items:

It’s the same 50- or 60-year-old C-level executives, who would be (justifiably) appalled to be discriminated against for their age, who are leading organizations that routinely engage in discriminatory hiring practices. Stop the hypocrisy!

If you will not hire an older person because of concerns over the cultural fit, then it’s high time to reassess your culture.

Attention older candidates: You’re not doing yourself any favors by using terms such as “seasoned” or “25 years’ experience.” In addition, you may have taken on a wide variety of roles throughout your career, but don’t forget to tailor the resume and your speaking points in an interview to the position you are vying for.

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

Hiring companies have a knack for putting people into narrowly defined, siloed roles. Candidates bring an in-demand skill and before you know it, they’re hired to carry out that specific responsibility. Yet, people are not narrowly defined, siloed automatons. We are all multi-faceted, multi-talented individuals with a broad skill set built from a wide-ranging set of life experiences.

Some companies get that about people and take proactive measures to leverage their employees’ multiple abilities. I once worked for a company that had a “career exposure” program, in which participating employees would be borrowed from their everyday roles a couple of half-days a week for a three-month period to work with an entirely different group in a very different capacity.

Many small, early-stage companies have a built-in career exposure model, in which everyone inherently wears multiple hats. It represents one of several principal allures in working for a young and agile company. But even in more structured environments, opportunities to expand one’s career landscape abound. One element of Bill Belichick’s mastery as head coach is to seek out players who can perform in multiple roles and multiple schemes. This makes for a more versatile team with added depth.

Yet, the onus isn’t all on the company to identify this multimodal maze for each employee. It behooves each candidate and existing employee to size up their skill set and identify additional tangential skills they could bring to the table. I’m not suggesting to reinvent, but rather extend.

In this record-breaking season in the Boston area, consisting of endless snow with no respite (and no place to put the snow), I’ve witnessed career extension firsthand. One of our neighbors, an accomplished mason, decided to extend his career in the winter. In the fair-weather months, he can be seen hauling bricks, wood, concrete and equipment from one job site to another. I think he does nearly as much driving as he does masonry work. Recently, for the winter months, he has attached a plow to his truck and has been driving all over town, doing contract plowing work. And given this winter’s offerings, I’m sure he’s making a pretty penny.

Even my own work as a search professional has brought career extension opportunities. Given my background, which has involved assessing countless thousands of resumes, I’ve extended my services to include writing executive resumes and bios.

There is a fine line, however, between career extension and trying to be all things to all people. Putting some focus around your multiple skills by tying a direct correlation between them, draws a far more credible picture than promoting any and all skills, hoping that one or two of them will resonate. I’ve seen resumes from candidates that are throwing tons of spaghetti against the wall. One candidate’s resume promoted him as Sales, Marketing, Pre-Sales Engineering, and Product Management. Impressive, diverse background of multiple competencies? Maybe. However, a hiring manager will take one look at that resume and for several reasons, instantly disqualify that candidate. In giving both resume and interviewing advice to candidates, I remind them that their career story needs to make sense. Its progression needs to be clear and digestible.

As a candidate or existing employee, planting the seeds for career extension must make sense, not just in terms of telling your career story, but also fitting in with the opportunity at hand. One way to ensure a fit with the company’s (extended) needs is to ask questions about the company’s growth strategy, execution challenges and business priorities. The answers will likely provide important clues on which of your extended abilities should be promoted and could be viewed as added value to the company.

Action items:

1. Establish your extended skills by starting with your primary role (e.g., Sales, Marketing, Software Development, Business Analytics, Finance, etc.). Then, map out, like rings around a bullseye, the tangential skills related to your primary role. Take it one or two more iterations, identifying tangential skills to your tangential skills. Before you know it, you’ll have a working list of extended skills that correlate to your primary competency. For any given career opportunity, you can pick and choose the ones to promote, based upon the company’s needs.

2. Your skill set and career story must be credible and make sense. Don’t try to impress hiring managers by throwing everything at them at once. When it comes to promoting additional skills, the law of diminishing returns crops up sooner than you think.

3. If all else fails, attach a plow to your truck and get out there. We need you!

Imagine for a moment that you’re a professional sports athlete. You’ve been paying your dues via extra hours of practice to raise your game and waiting your turn for a chance to prove your value. You’ve put in the sweat equity and made the most of the opportunity for the past several years. Finally, your big payday is on the horizon. You’re in a contract year and at the end of the season, you’ll be a free agent. Multiple teams will be knocking down the door to your agent, bidding up the package to include performance kickers and a host of tantalizing benefits. As long as you have a solid year with impressive stats, your ship is about to come in.

So we’re not professional sports athletes, paid mammoth sums of money to play a game – millions if we win and millions if we lose. We don’t have an agent, looking to capitalize on our past performance with a max contract. Worse yet, we’re in the corporate world, where we’re deemed tenants at will. Despite our self-worth and proven value, predicated on years of accumulated tribal knowledge and accomplishments, we’re highly expendable – easily replaced, made redundant, or otherwise evaporated at a moment’s notice.

Granted, there are plenty of situations, activities and decisions in our working worlds that are well beyond our control. That promising early-stage start-up could fail to land the next round of funding. The post-acquisition environment for an organization may face massive consolidation and redundancies. The big brand, F500 company may have missed Wall Street’s expectations on quarterly earnings. Anything can happen at any time. And the pace of change is only getting faster. Your company’s picture keeps changing before it’s been fully drawn.

Yet, as working professionals, we are the possessors and caretakers of something that is a constant – our own individual brands. And our individual brand, like any brand, represents a promise; an assurance that the experience and resulting performance will meet or exceed expectations. To sustain and build upon the aptitude, attitude and performance our individual brand promises – now that is something we fully own and control.

The best of breed employees and top tier candidates understand this ethos. They embody pride, integrity, credibility, accountability, drive, and consistency – intangible attributes hiring executives consciously (or sometimes subconsciously) seek out in candidates. As I tell my 12-year-old daughter on a regular basis, you have to go to the trouble of doing the job anyway. So, you might as well do a really good job.

Many people just completed a year during which they worked hard to hit their goals. They climbed the mountain and reached the summit. And now with a new year, they’re back down at the base of the mountain, staring up at a new set of sky-high goals to attain. No, we’re not exorbitantly paid professional athletes, looking to hit it big after completing a successful contract year. Yet, there’s no reason to think this couldn’t be that contract year.

The next stellar career opportunity may be right around the corner. The best way to land that position is to be the athlete everyone is vying to hire. And there’s nothing preventing us from acting as though we’re in a contract year. Besides, in our world, every year is a contract year.

Action items:

Don’t just do your job. Do it well. And while you’re at it, keep track of your stats – the goals you’ve achieved, the milestones you’ve surpassed, and the initiatives you’ve driven.

The euphemism for a top-tier candidate is “athlete.” So, embody the mindset of one, starting with defining your personal brand and the value it brings to companies.

How would you feel about being paid millions of dollars to win…or lose?

I’m often asked about the seasonality of hiring. Many people have concluded that along with the summer doldrums, the holidays are another time when interviewing and hiring go on sabbatical. Nothing can be further from the truth. From this recruiter’s perspective, there is no seasonality whatsoever.

Instead, both the summer and December holiday periods reflect a similar challenge. Despite ongoing high priority hiring needs, vacations and holidays throw a big time wrench into the process. And needless to say, this time of year offers up a double whammy as companies are also fully consumed with the push for quarter-end and year-end business. Actually, it’s a triple whammy as for some unknown reason, strange things seem to happen to people around the holidays.

As a microcosm of this difficult period, in which preserving interviewing and hiring momentum appears to be an exercise in futility, let me give you a glimpse into the last week alone:

* A hiring manager had to drop everything because his son was rushed into emergency surgery

* A leading Director-level candidate has postponed his second-round interview because the night before, his mother who lives overseas, suffered a heart attack

* The hiring SVP had to cancel an interview due to a last minute trip to help close year-end business

* A finalist candidate had to postpone final meetings in favor of the emergency room due to severe back spasms from a car accident two weeks ago

* The CSO missed a scheduled phone interview and has been unresponsive due to immersion in year-end business efforts

* The hiring VP, who was quite interested in a particular candidate, unexpectedly went radio silent for over a week because of high-level meetings with executives who had just acquired his company. And although he’s now back from those meetings and ready to resume, we’re now on the doorstep of the holidays. So, he wants to delay the interview process until the holidays are over.

I had to talk a candidate off the ledge because the hiring executive has been so unresponsive throughout the interview process. The candidate took it as a sign of disinterest and/or lack of prioritization. Good thing he didn’t summarily abandon the opportunity as he ended up getting the job. This brings to mind a general point about the interview process: it never goes as planned or anticipated. Even during other times of the year, when there are fewer reasons for problems to arise, I’ve found that delays persist on a regular basis.

For both candidates and hiring managers, the question is how will they act when interview postponements crop up due to unforeseen circumstances? Naturally, it’s frustrating for everyone involved. When I tell my hiring clients that the average search lasts eight weeks, they nearly die. In a vacuum, eight weeks seems like an inordinate amount of time. Yet, in real life, where unanticipated scheduling conflicts occur with great frequency, eight weeks isn’t so bad.

The holiday season is stressful enough. Adding to that the expectation that things will go as planned is setting the stage for discontent. Even though interviews may be deemed a high priority for all involved, the world doesn’t stop for them to be completed. Candidates still have their current jobs and families to tend to. Hiring managers already had a full plate before interviewing and hiring were added to the mix. Combined with the holidays and push for year-end business, we have all the trappings for pure havoc.

The antidote for getting through this crazy period for interviews and hiring is to readjust expectations. Let’s expect unexpected delays in the interview process. It may not solve the issue at hand, but it will lessen the crazy factor. I can see why many people believe that interviewing and hiring ceases during the summer and December holiday period. Yet, it’s not for a lack of activity. It’s because of too much activity.

“Just get me an interview with them and believe me, I’ll take care of the rest and make you look good.” That’s the kiss of death. I don’t know how many times I’ve been told that by candidates, but I do know how many of them got the job – zero. Be it outright hubris or the proverbial shooting-from-the-hip cowboy approach, these candidates don’t seem to understand the importance of interview preparation and all it entails.

Last week, I had three well-qualified Director-level candidates go in for initial interviews. One didn’t take me up on my offer to have a prep call prior while the other two did (in fact, I think they may have suggested it first). Guess which two are moving on in the process? Clearly, interview preparation means different things to different people. I’ve seen some people put more effort into preparing to buy a new flat screen TV than preparing for what could be a life-changing career move.

Having been both a hiring executive and candidate over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the inherent benefits associated with doing one’s homework prior to the big dance. Here are some of the steps I’ve seen top-tier candidates take to get ready for their interviews.

* Research the company. Of course, this is obvious. Yet all too often, candidates rely solely on the job description as their study material. Along with combing every square inch of the company’s website, including press releases and case studies/whitepapers, a simple Google of the company will produce a wellspring of material to absorb. As an additional step, I recommend studying the company’s competitors as well, taking notice of how they position themselves in the market along with newsworthy events they’re either touting or bemoaning. All this can produce rich discussion points in the interview as well as poignant questions to ask.

* Research the people. Aside from executive bios on the company’s website, take the time to look up the interviewers’ LinkedIn profiles. This can be a great resource to learn about their career paths and how they position themselves. In addition, it can reveal other valuable tidbits, such as their educational background, personal interests and contacts in common. This can be exceptionally helpful in establishing rapport.

* Leverage your network to see who might know someone at the company. Perhaps one of those employees would be willing to have a brief call with you to provide insight into the people you’ll be interviewing with, the company’s culture or high-level company initiatives.

* If you got in to the opportunity by way of a recruiter, pick their brain. Any recruiter worth their salt will be able to impart vast quantities of useful knowledge. The best recruiters can convey the hiring executive’s hot buttons and nuanced preferences (i.e., what’s not on the job description). They can provide detail on the company’s financials, competitive landscape, the interviewers’ differing styles and mannerisms, and the work environment. A recruiter should be able to discuss the history of the search in terms of how long the position has been open, what kinds of candidates have already been through the process and what led the prior candidates to be disqualified.

* Check out company rating websites, like Glassdoor, not so much to take the feedback as gospel, but to spot trends and perhaps raise as questions. Keep in mind that some of the feedback posted on these sites came from disgruntled former employees whose disgruntlement may have come about from their own doing – less than stellar performance, unrealistic expectations, or perhaps a lack of cultural or job fit.

* Prepare thoughtful, salient questions to ask. Granted, the interview discussion should spark questions naturally. Yet, having questions prepared in advance will ensure that even despite nerves or forgetfulness, you’ll have questions at the ready.

* Review your own career history, especially as it pertains to the role you are vying for. Sure, hiring managers will likely have you go through each position you’ve held – why you took the job, what did you accomplish in the role and what business impact those accomplishments had, and why you left the company. But beyond that, they may ask you to walk them through specific examples of past situations that relate to the position at hand. For example, if you’re interviewing for Director of Pre-Sales Engineering, the hiring executive may ask: “Tell me about a time when the demand for SEs exceeded your resources. What happened and how did you manage through that challenge?” In preparing for the interview, take time to think of a variety of challenging scenarios that the hiring manager may ask about. Be prepared to describe the specific situation and its associated challenge, what action you took, and the results of your action.

* Don’t sweat the small stuff. Take care of the little things a day ahead so that you’re not burdened with them at the last minute. Plan out your wardrobe (always dress up, unless you’re specifically told not to). Plan out your commute, figuring in extra time for traffic and finding the right building. Some candidates even do a dry run commute a day or two in advance, especially if they’re unfamiliar with the location. Print out extra copies of your resume ahead of time, just in case they’re needed.

Thorough interview preparation carries many benefits that help stack the deck in your favor. From the hiring executive’s perspective, a well-prepared candidate comes across as such in no uncertain terms. After all, it demonstrates initiative, forethought, resourcefulness, organization, interest, inquisitiveness, and drive – all positive intangible qualities that many hiring managers consciously seek out. Going into an interview well-prepared will generate greater confidence, enable sharper performance and mitigate nervousness. The sweat equity put into comprehensive interview preparation will invariably lead to significant dividends — well beyond that of a new TV!

Action items:

Take a moment to assess how you’re currently preparing for interviews. Be honest with yourself. Are you really doing all you can to stack the deck in your favor?

Gain as many data points as possible about the company and interviewers.

Take a trip down memory lane, reviewing your own career history. Put particular emphasis into recounting the specific challenges, initiatives and accomplishments you experienced that bear relevance to the opportunity you are interviewing for.

In this era of spin-doctoring, I continue to be amazed by both hiring companies and employment experts who downplay the importance of compensation in the eyes of candidates and employees. The latest hiring company touts their industry-leading innovative solutions and thought leadership, only to be outdone by their transformative modern culture. Sounds impressive. Too bad I’ve heard the same thing from nearly every other organization. Meanwhile, management consulting experts point to the many employee surveys that rank the importance of compensation below nearly all other critical factors, coming in just above Tacky T-Shirt Tuesdays, Red Sox ticket raffles and ping pong tables.

One VP Sales told me how he took a pay cut to join the company and expects others to do the same. Well, bully for him! I’m sure he’ll offer candidates the same generous equity allotment he gladly accepted. News Flash: It is no longer 2009! We are in the midst of a candidate-driven market, one that has raced past prior employment surveys and compensation benchmark studies.

No doubt, all the trappings of a great gig need to be in place: discernible career advancement paths; supportive and constructive culture; phenomenal product or service in a growing space; equally phenomenal people; acknowledgement for work well done; attainable goals; openness to new ideas; absence of politics and needless bureaucracy; sensitivity to work/life balance; strong financials; growing customer base; and leadership that embodies passion, vision, and ability to execute. Yet, nearly every hiring company paints a reasonable facsimile of this picture. That brings us to the elusive issue of compensation.

My hiring clients that have been winning the talent wars are the ones who prioritize getting the right people on the bus over managing to a rigid line item in a budget spreadsheet. I’m not suggesting that hiring companies abandon fiscal responsibility altogether and approach the talent market with a blank check policy. Rather, I strongly encourage companies to take a more accurate pulse of the market right now and at the same time, build in the flexibility needed to craft a compelling offer to the right candidate. While hiring companies have been flaunting everything except compensation, I’ve noticed how candidates are bringing it back front and center.

Of course, compensation means different things to different candidates. The weighting of base salary, variable compensation (e.g., bonus, commission), equity, and benefits gets distributed differently from candidate to candidate. Some prefer the perceived security of a stronger base while others desire greater upside via an uncapped variable with accelerators. There is another group that gravitates towards early-stage companies for the equity lottery ticket, betting on an exit event that could yield a far more significant material impact.

The point is we all work for several reasons, with making ends meet and achieving personal financial goals at or near the top of the heap. And in the current candidate-driven talent market, hiring companies can ill afford to sweep this reality aside. There are many exciting companies to work for these days. They offer promising futures, positive environments and best-of-breed innovative solutions. They have very compelling stories to tell. However, for every one of them, there are twenty others offering up the same attributes. At the end of the day, one of them will win out on hiring the candidate five others were also vying for. And it won’t be because of Halloween costume parties or Call of Duty tournaments.

Action items:

1. It behooves both candidates and hiring companies to gain a real-time snapshot of the current market conditions as it relates to compensation. Ask trusted recruiters who work in the same space. Ask other hiring executives. Ask other candidates who have recently accepted a new position.

2. The inability to attract and hire top talent in a timely manner is by far the greatest barrier to achieving business objectives. Companies ought to assess their recent hiring performance and come to grips with why open reqs are taking months instead of weeks to fill.

3. Upon putting together an offer for a finalist candidate, don’t just send an offer, hoping it gets accepted. Take the time beforehand to engage the candidate in an open and honest dialog about compensation and what it would realistically take to get them on board. Socializing an offer first allows both parties to fully understand what’s important to one another while facilitating a verbal meeting of the minds. By the time a formal written offer is sent to the candidate, the offer terms should be no surprise.

Despite their respectable 2-1 record to start the season, the New England Patriots are struggling. There are several key reasons for their sputtering offense. Some point to Tom Brady’s age and declining abilities. Others point to his less than stellar stable of pass receivers. Many point to the offensive line and their inability to consistently and cohesively provide Brady with adequate protection.

It’s hard not to agree with the offensive line issue, yet there may be a reason behind the reason. Gone are the Patriots’ long-time offensive line guru and coach, Dante Scarnecchia and six-time Pro Bowl veteran lineman Logan Mankins. Granted, Mankins is entering elder-statesman status as a 32-year-old and has likely lost a step or two. However, there’s something both Scarnecchia and Mankins brought to the offensive line that is not easily replaced: mentorship.

Ok, enough with the sports reference as I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. The point, however, is there are people in our lives who provide immense inspiration, guidance and influence. One of the strongest, most valuable and often overlooked forces is that of mentors. And sometimes, as in the case of the Patriots’ current plight, we don’t realize the full impact of mentors until they’re gone.

Some of the brightest and most impressive people I’ve met are those who all along, have sought out and continue to seek out mentors. So what does this have to do with candidates, hiring managers and the hiring process? Quite a bit.

Candidates’ motivations for making career moves span across a broad spectrum, from compensation to company culture, and product to profitability. All these impetuses are important and deserve respect and attention. Yet, when a candidate includes the yearning for greater mentorship, my ears perk up. This alone speaks to several important intangible attributes that hiring managers ought to prioritize: coachability, sense of initiative, resourcefulness, self-awareness, and self-development.

These candidates get it. They understand that as people’s careers progress, they themselves need to evolve as well. They appreciate how learning doesn’t stop with school and that the day someone thinks they’ve attained the pinnacle of knowledge and vision, they’ve lost their edge.

For hiring managers, mentorship ought to take on multiple connotations. First, they should tune in to candidates’ interest in and drive for mentoring as it speaks to thought processes, priorities, and a variety of intangible attributes. Secondly, as part of the onboarding process for new hires, some sort of an assigned mentor program would likely produce a number of benefits for all involved. Most notably, it would spark an expedited employee ramp-up period as well as send a strong message to the employee that their new employer truly values them and cares about their behalf. Taking it to the next logical step, ongoing mentoring programs within companies can bolster both job satisfaction and employee retention.

Specific to the job search, interviewing and hiring processes, both candidates and hiring managers can help themselves by seeking out mentors. Candidates can rely on former managers, colleagues, career coaches, and trusted recruiters to provide helpful job hunting, interviewing and career direction guidance. Similarly, hiring managers should turn to other hiring managers, colleagues and trusted recruiters for interviewing, candidate selection and offer negotiations advice.

Just as the Patriots’ offensive line contends with different scenarios and unique challenges on every play, no two hiring processes are the same. There are simply way too many variables involved to make it predictable and cookie cutter. Thus, candidates and hiring managers can greatly benefit from relying on others’ perspectives to help them navigate through the many nuances found in every resume, interview and offer situation.

For multiple reasons and countless circumstances, mentorship should be on the forefront of every candidate and hiring manager. As for the Patriots, perhaps some mentorship from Matt Light and John Hannah couldn’t hurt.

Action items:

For candidates, proactively seek out coaches who can help you optimize the development of your career. Be prepared to discuss with hiring managers how you’ve sought out mentoring along the way and how you’ve integrated mentors’ advice into your approach.

If candidates don’t bring it up, hiring managers should ask candidates about mentors and specifically how they benefitted from them.

If anyone knows of a stellar, stout offensive lineman in need of a job, please give Bill Belichick a call.